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STAYING PUT TO STOP IT

27th February 1997
Page 5
Page 5, 27th February 1997 — STAYING PUT TO STOP IT
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

nd now a "how long is a piece of string?" question: how many illegal operators can you catch in roadside checks in 300 hours? All those readers replying "who care?" should not complain if they end up losing work to a cowboy operator who's still in business because the roadside check that would have caught him had to be prematurely cancelled—due to a lack of police time.

It seems ridiculous in this day and age that a properly planned roadside check can be brought to an abrupt end when the attending constable disappears with the hasty cry "I'm just off to court..."

But the deal between the VI and ACP° (see lead story) should at least ensure that 300 hours a month of precious roadside enforcement time are not lost due to the unavailability of the police.

That's 300 hours now available to nab all those tacho cheats, speed fiends and maintenance shirkers who might otherwise have driven past frustrated vehicle examiners simply because there wasn't a copper to stick up a hand and stop them.

It would be churlish of Commercial Motor not to recognise the fact that the police have a difficult balancing act to perform. So why didn't the Home Office agree to VI staff becoming Special Constables with the power to stop trucks by the roadside and let the full-time boys in blue get on with the job of keeping their balance?

That was just one of the many "good ideas" put forward last

summer by the All-Party

Transport Select Committee in its report into road transport enforcement—and one of the many that were subsequently ignored by the Department of Transport.

Fortunately ACPO's commitment to roadside checks means there's now more time to try and catch cowboy operators. And how long before they're all rounded up? How long is a piece of string?


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